Hi Everyone- Apologies for disappearing. I got wrapped up in school and travel, which prevented me from taking time off for writing. I have not forgotten about Under the Cover of Ice, but I figured writing a slightly shorter fic to get back into the swing of things would be best. Many thanks to everyone out there who continue to write! Reading y'all's fanfiction keeps me sane during stressful tests and such. I'll try to finish up lingering stories as well as brainstorm up a few new ones as I can over the summer.

Cheers- WriterEl

The Fall

:: Mac and Jack::

Of course they'd run. They always did.

Macgyver threw up his hands in exasperation as he glared at his partner on the other side of the convenience store aisle.

With eyes wide, the ex-Delta responded with a look of surprised indignation, "What!? I told'em to get on the ground!"

"Timing Jack, TIMING!"

Mac lunged forward, picked up a bright can of what looked to be Chef Boyardee Ravioli, and hurled it towards the nearest of the two escaping Armenians before turning back to chastise his partner.

"It helps if you wait until we've actually surrounded them man! You never wait for me to…"

A commotion stopped the young agent mid-sentence as both he and his partner turned and stared open mouthed towards the checkout counter. Mac's can had hit its mark and the burlier of the two arms dealers went down like a sack of potatoes along with the contents of a nearby magazine stand.

After another moment of stunned silence, Jack let out a long whistle and broke out into a huge grin, "Did you just apprehend a suspect with a can of pasta?"

Mac stood there eyebrows raised. He quickly recovered from his surprise and shot back with a scowl, "I didn't expect that to work," as he turned and jogged towards aisle two.

Jack shrugged as he watched his partner presumably go find something to secure the hostile. As he waited, he slowly sauntered up to the 'sack of potatoes' and stood looking down at the guy. He was clearly going to be out cold for a long time.

As Mac rounded the corner back towards the counter with a fist full of zipties, the older man couldn't help but rib his partner a bit, "Damn son, you should'a told me your spirit animal was Nolan Ryan. Where was this when we got our asses handed to us on the diamond last month by those CIA weenies?"

Mac rolled his eyes as he knelt and began securing the ankles and wrists of the unconscious man. As he cinched the last tie, Mac looked up surprised that his partner was still standing there grinning like a fool at him.

"And you hog tie like a champ. We're gonna get you signed up for some tie-down ropin' during our Texas vacation this weekend. You are a young man of many talents."

Highly annoyed at Jack's inability to stay focused on what was literally their last mission before they went on a well deserved extended leave, Mac suggested with a little more sarcasm than he intended, "Jack! The OTHER guy….Yes!?"

Jack's face immediately fell into a tight lipped pout, "Yeah Yeah Yeah…..Son you have got to learn to take a compliment. By the way, you are gonna thank me for all the fun I've got set up for us at the ranch. I think you'll fit right into the cowboy life bud. Two weeks of solid paid vacation..."

"Jack!"

The Texan raised his hands in defeat, "Alright...Alright."

Jack adjusted the earpiece that connected both he and Mac to their lifeline sitting 2,000 miles away in front of a laptop back at Phoenix's War Room.

"Ri, you got sights on rabbit number two?"

A slight crackle preceded the haggard sounding voice of the hacker Riley Davis whose job was to monitor their every move. Preferably without losing her mind in the process. The team had been running 110% for over 4 weeks now and everyone was starting to feel tired and worn down. Good natured humor had hit the highway a good week ago for everyone except Jack, who continued to practice his witticisms regardless of how it seemed to grate like sand paper across the rest of the team's nerves.

"I'm sorry Jack, were you saying something about the actual mission. I couldn't really tell through the incessant stream of words you routinely barf out describing totally unrelated personal anecdotes and observations."

Jack shook his head and gave Mac a hard stare over the rims of his aviators, "Looks like pretty much everyone took a swim in the deep end of the sassy pool this morning huh? Ri honey, just tell me if Mac's magic ubberviolet mist worked or not."

Mac could literally feel Riley's eye roll through the headset.

"The answer is yes Jack. The ultraviolet paint bomb Mac rigged up to mark our dealers back at the drop zone worked like a charm. I have the second suspect lighting up like Christmas on our satellite tracking system. The guy obviously doesn't realize what the goop is that he's covered in. It looks like he is headed southwest on 5th street and….good news for you ol' man…..he's running pretty damn slow."

"A stroke of redeeming luck for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid here isn't it?"

Both Mac and Jack looked at each other with eyes wider than two deer caught in headlights.

Matty, who was supposed to be in an 8 hour long meeting with the Secretary of Defense, suddenly materialized out of nowhere on the com set. Even Riley let out a startled gasp.

"You two better get your heads in the game and asses in gear before I revoke your time off and put you on staple removing duty down in the basement with Carl instead. This team is NOT on vacation yet."

The big scary boss was back much earlier than expected. In his panicked state to act cool and normal, Jack reflexively tried to start up a light conversation with "Hey Matty. Whose Carl?"

Eyes still as big as saucers, Mac looked at his partner as if he had grown tentacles. In horror, Mac repeatedly made the universal horizontal sweeping gesture across his neck meaning 'Stop You Idiot'.

Matty's voice was low and soft, which made it even more intimidating, 'My point exactly Dalton."

Jack threw up his palms at Mac in silent anxiety and started throwing out chaotic hand signals of his own leaving each agent pantomiming unintelligible commands to one another in some farcical silent screaming match.

In a voice of pure resignation Riley spoke up, "Hey guys...uh...yeah...Matty is actually here in the War room with me. You are definitely on screen."

The ensuing silence was finally broken as Matty said matter of factly, "Well if anything, it was worth coming back to the office early just to watch you two guinea fowls dance."

The violent hand signalling stopped immediately. Mac pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly shook his head. Jack raised his eyes up to the heavens in silent prayer. They were screwed. This was shaping up to be a less than stellar execution of a mission even for Jack's standards. Matty was certainly going to attain whole new levels of pissed once she was debriefed with the full story of all the mishaps they had accrued during this operation.

Jack put on his silkiest timbre, "Well hey Matty...good to hear you're back at the ol' helm. We missed ya. How did your meeting go?"

"Shut it Jack. Jill kept me informed of the mission's progress, or lack thereof. The Secretary was quite understanding of my sudden departure after I let him know I had agents loose on the streets of Minnesota with no supervision. In fact he was insistent I leave ASAP after hearing the words Macgyver and Dalton used in the same sentence. Apparently you guys make a lasting impression. Some would say of the traumatic variety. Now, can we please get back to cleaning up the mess you two have managed to track across all of St. Paul?"

All three agents including Riley mumbled a sheepish, 'Yes Ma'am."

That was the unacknowledged secret phrase that the team clearly understood as meaning 'Let's get down to business.

Mac stood up next to his partner and cleared his throat. 'So Riley, are there some routes Jack and I can take to get another crack at flanking this second suspect?"

"He appears to be headed towards the Wabasha Street bridge. If Jack can flush him south on any of the side streets, Mac can cut him off on Kellogg Boulevard. Just turn left on Robert and right on Kellogg."

Jack, now a model of professionalism, gave Mac a curt nod and cut a quick path through the store's front sliding glass doors out onto 5th.

Mac turned back to the unconscious arms dealer at his feet and tilted his head forward to get a clear look at his face.

"Request a pickup of the first target, neutralized, at the corner of Sibley and 5th. Jack's in direct pursuit of second target on 5th. Riley, you have an ID on this guy?"

"Yeah Mac, surveillance camera behind the counter has a clear line of site. Let me run the image through facial recognition and I'll have an answer on which Armenian Arms Lord we are dealing with here in a second."

"Copy, I'll start working my way along Kellogg."

With that, Mac was sprinting out the back door into the alleyway attempting to set a pace that he thought would mirror his partner's 2 blocks away.

::Mac::

Slightly breathless as he turned onto Kellogg, Mac reached out to the older agent through coms, "Jack, sitrep."

After a few huffs on the other end, Jack replied, "I just caught up to our guy on Wabasha. Looks like he finally discovered his inner road runner. He is definitely hauling ass towards the bridge."

Despite how tired he was from the last few weeks of fighting, running, jumping onto moving vehicles, etc. Mac let the adrenaline push his legs at double time. Jack and his quarry had covered way more ground than he'd expected. It was going to be close, but if his calculations were correct, he was pretty sure he could intersect the second target's trajectory before he and Jack made it onto the bridge.

Suddenly Matty's voice broke in with an unsettling edge of urgency to it.

"Hey guys, be advised. Riley got a hit on the facial recognition software. The suspect you apprehended back at the convenience store was positively ID'd as Hyak Petrossian, the son of Moscow's kingpin for the Armenian Akhperutyun. Intel has good reason to believe that the second guy is more than likely Alex Temar, the go-to hit-man for this particular arms dealing clan. He has a reputation of completing jobs up close and personal, so stay in pursuit, but do not engage. I repeat do not engage. I can pull the transport agents from the airport just southeast of you to set up as a fence. We'll pen him in."

Jack broke in, clearly moving at a dead run, "Matty, we got this." ::Huff Huff Huff:: "We're you're A-team remember?"

Matty's voice softened just a fraction, "Not the time to fish around for an ego stroke Jack. Seriously, Mac-Jack, the dossier I have on this guy reads like a horror film. He is extremely dangerous and I've run you both a little too hard over the last few assignments. Just keep driving Temar south and let the fence take him down. That is an order."

"Damn" Mac barked out breathlessly. He had almost made it to the end of Kellogg when he saw Temar streak across the intersection followed by a cacophony of blaring car horns. A few seconds later Jack appeared, leaping across the hood of an inconveniently stopped car, which only slowed him down for a fraction of a second. Long enough, though, for him to at least take notice of Mac running at a full tilt towards the intersection at his nine o'clock.

Mac's lungs were on fire and he physically couldn't run any faster. He mentally kicked himself for miscalculating everyone's speed.

"Jack, I'm falling in at your six about 80 yards back buddy."

"Copy that. I've got the suspect about 30 yards ahead of me.' ::Huff huff huff:: What is this guy, part antelope?"

Just before Jack entered the bridge corridor, Mac sensed the pace of the chase in front of him begin to slow.

"Jack? What's going on up there?"

"I don't know man, maybe this persistent ol' coyote here finally wore him out. He might be getting desperate. Mac, maybe try to clear out some of these civillians along the footpath in case he decides to engage with a firearm. I have two clips, but not a lot of cover, so I'll need…..."

Suddenly there was a muffled 'umph' over Mac's earpiece.

"Jack?"

There was no response.

"Jack. Sitrep."

Again, no response. Mac could hear the blood pounding in his ears as he began to run so fast it felt like he was falling headlong forward only to have is feet catch him at the last second to propel him into yet another headlong fall. Again and again. Something was wrong, he could feel it as he raced onto the bridge after his partner.

"JACK!"

To Be Continued...

Critiques are very welcome. If banter seems off character, etc etc let me know and I'll try to get more into my head space to come up with better character lines.